Commentary: Beware of legislation to provide Medicare seniors with

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Aug 22, 2003 by Special to The Daily Record

The American Association of Retired Persons has strongly opposed the House and Senate versions of legislation to provide Medicare seniors with prescription drug coverage. Thank goodness AARP has alerted its 35.5 million members, the U.S. Congress, the Bush administration and the general public to the outrageous Medicare farce now seeking congressional approval.

Consumer Reports echoes the AARP's opposition, declaring that legislation with its combination of skimpy benefits and the historically high growth of prescription drug costs mean that most consumers who lack coverage today would wind up paying more for prescription drugs in four years than they do now.

Many, including this senator, see the legislation as the first step in an attempt to dismantle the 40-year-old Medicare program. Remember, when first proposed by the Bush administration, Medicare prescription drug coverage would be provided only to those seniors who switched from Medicare to private managed care health plans. Outrage greeted this ridiculous plan. Now the legislation provides coverage for all seniors, but strongly encourages them to switch to private plans.

We have all witnessed the old bait and switch private Medicare HMOs' operation in Maryland. In the late 1990s, they lured seniors into enrolling with promises of prescription drug coverage. Within five years they closed down and left thousands of Marylanders without any coverage at all. It just wasn't very profitable to provide coverage for senior health and drug needs. I am certain that when these private plans, created with federal subsidies, see that insuring seniors' health and drug needs is not very profitable, they will raise premiums, increase deductibles and ultimately abandon their senior enrollees.

The legislation does nothing to hold down drug manufacturers' sky- high prices, which increase about 12 percent each year.

The most ludicrous part of both the House and Senate bills is the doughnut. In the Senate version, 50 percent of drug costs between $276 and $4,500 will be covered. However, there will be no coverage at all for drug costs between $4,500 and $5,800. However, when an individual's out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs reaches $3,700, 90 percent of drugs will be covered. That hole in the coverage is the doughnut.

For the life of me, I cannot comprehend the logic that says people whose drugs cost between $276 and $4,500 need help, but those whose drugs cost between $4,500 and $5,800 need no help. That is the dumbest thing I ever heard. I guess some insurance expert told the bill's sponsors that the greatest number of seniors spend between $4,500 and $5,800 for medicine every year, and therefore to hold the $400 billion cost of coverage down they decided not to give those seniors any coverage help.

Another pitfall is the legislation's failure to protect the prescription drug coverage many retirees now receive from their employers. Valid fear exists that passage of the legislation could encourage employers to drop retiree drug coverage plans.

In its searing analysis of the legislation, which doesn't become effective until 2006, Consumer Reports states that in both the Senate ad House versions, the average Medicare beneficiary who has no prescription drug coverage and spent $2,318 in 2003 would spend more in 2007. Under the legislation, including premium, deductible, co- payments and the doughnut, the Senate version would find seniors spending $2,524 (real 2003 dollars) and $2,954 (real 2003 dollars).

Some members of Congress are calling the legislation only a beginning and better than nothing. As I see it, passage of this hoax is the beginning of the end of Medicare and less than nothing. It is a maze of complex deductibles, no assurance of lowering prescription drug prices, and huge gaps in coverage. The legislation should be discredited as holding out the false promise of prescription drug coverage for seniors and disables. Passage of the legislation will be, without a doubt, the cruelest joke ever played on an unsuspecting public by its government.

Ulysses Currie represents Prince George's County in the Maryland State Senate. He can be reached at 410-841-3127 or ulysses_currie@senate.state.md.us.